Lecture 16- Culture and social networks Flashcards
culture- definition
group-typical behaviour patterns shared by members of a community that rely on socially learned and transmitted information
why is understanding culture important
can help understand maladaptive behaviour that may be culturally transmitted
can aid in conservation- re-introduction etc
helps explain ‘success’ of humans
3 methods of identifying and studying culture
ethnographic method
translocation experiments
social network diffusion method
what is ethnography
behavioural variants in different areas are documented, and possible alternative explanations (such as differences in ecology or genetics) are excluded, so you can conclude that culture is the reason for behaviour
example of where ethnography has been used
chimpanzee culture- found 39 ‘cultural variants’ across 6 sites
criticisms of ethnography
-cannot absolutely exclude these other factors
-there are likely to be correlations between environment and ecology/genetics if culture is adaptive
-genetic and ecological interpretations are important, and may still be applicable to culture
what are translocation experiments
moving individuals between groups, or swapping whole groups, and trying to identify if behaviours change
example of a translocation experiment
whales- found a single migratory male changed the whale song across a 3 year period
what is the social network diffusion method
monitoring of new behaviours as they diffuse through a social system- can be natural or experimental
what is NBDA
network-based diffusion analysis- testing the spread of a behaviour and comparing it to models which utilise genetic or ecological factors, see what models the spread seems to follow
bird example of NBDA
tits- taught a puzzle-solving behaviour to an individual, looked at how the behaviour spread and modelled it spatially
>found that there was an average 75% reach of the behaviour, also found these traditions were also stable across 2 generations
insect example of NBDA
string-pulling behaviour in bees
>found transmission, requiring about 6 ‘foraging bouts’
argument for if social networks produce
social structure influences culture and vice versa- very interrelated
-separate groups w different behaviour > different culture from social structure
-behaviour driving separation > culture influencing social structure
